Matias’s Thursday morning odd encounter(Lykaia)
Date: 2025-07-24 07:25
(Matias’s Thursday morning odd encounter(Lykaia):Lykaia)
[Thu Jul 24 2025]
At Arcadia Park/span>/spanSprawling lawns of well-maintained grass stretch across the grounds,
interrupted by winding asphalt paths that curve between mature oaks, maples,
and elms whose branches form natural canopies overhead. The paths are lined
with wrought iron benches and vintage-style lampposts that cast pools of
amber light after dusk. Small hills and gentle valleys create natural
divisions within the space, with occasional rock outcroppings providing
informal seating areas. Stone bridges arch over narrow streams that meander
through the lower areas, their water trickling softly over smooth pebbles.
The eastern sections catch salt-tinged breezes from the nearby Atlantic,
rustling through the leaves and carrying the faint scent of the sea.
Scattered throughout are small copses of trees that create shaded groves,
their undergrowth cleared but for patches of ferns and hostas. The grass
shows signs of regular use – worn patches where informal paths have formed
and areas compressed by picnic blankets and recreational activities./span>/spanIt is morning/span>/span68F(20C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. The mist is heaviest At Autumn and Washington/span>/span(Your target and their allies encounter the vassal of a demon or god who wants to quit working for their master and go back to a normal life. They need to either find a way to help them do that, or betray them to their master.
)
“Oh hey this is park where you got time looped right Matias?” Eloa asks turning to to look around the park, “Is honestly quite a nice park.” She holds out her arms and spins around on the path a bit.
“What are you talking about?” Matias asks blankly before pointing out, “Nothing happened to -me- it happened to you and you ran into other versions of me from different time periods.”
“It’s an okay park. Typical American. More shaped than natural.” Lykaia says, looking at Eloa for a moment. “Different Matias-es. Someone showed me the principle of flower ritualism. I’ll need to sit down and try it someday. Less blood. Less cutting your own palm when you can’t regenerate that cut quickly and be left discomforted for a day.”
As the group makes their way through, close to a pond, kneels a woman. Her hair is long and she would fit more into a fantasy novel with leather armor and a dark spear held straight up besides her. She looks to be fiddling with something with her other hand.
Matias walks along with his hands tucked into his jean pockets seeming more perturbed at Eloa than paying attention to the space. When Lykaia mentions flower ritualism he instinctively corrects, “Natural magic or sympathetic magic. I did not know you were interested in such. Most naturals do not like to dabble, it is very taxing.”
“You were clearly the one looping!” Eloa insists back at Matias, pouting, “Me and Jasper wouldn’t have both looped.” Huffing a little, she runs forward to go sniff a nice big flower growing by a bush before looking over at the strange woman from fantasy novel. “Oh you think there is cosplay competition on?” She asks gesturing towards the woman with the spear. “Jenny was being Leloo from fifth element the other day.”
Matias cannot help but say, “Multi-pass” in a bad accent.
Eloa says “She had a multipass!“
“I don’t know what Leloo or the fifth element is.” Lykaia says to Eloa before looking over at the woman. She freezes. “That looks oddly familiar.” She admits while the woman on the other hand then rises to her feet, and looks back around at the party. The spear rises from the ground and is then lowered, tip of the spear turned towards the party and Lykaia specifically. As she comes closer, there are many scars across her neck and even one that runs along her cheek. A look at her aura would reveal that she holds some measure of power. She begins to approach, spear tip left where it is, her pace slow, measured.
Matias slips his hand out of his pocket and to the small of his back where a discreet holster is and there is a soft *CLICK* of a safety being disengaged. “Eloa, think this woman recognizes one of us. Why not see if sunny disposition gets her to tip spear up or down.” he suggests in a brazilian accented english seeming otherwise unconcerned by the approach, slate-grey eyes looking through dangerously low on the nose spectacles at the fantasical woman.
“Uhhh…” Vaguely being reminded of being around Mommy and Daddy with the other two around her, Eloa gives Matias a look. A look that says Why am I the sunny one! But there is a sigh as Eloa makes her way over towards the woman with a smile and waves her hands, letting that sooothing angelic aura eminate from her. “Ola! Is look great! Is for competition?” She asks, gesturing her hand up and down over the spear woman’s armor.
The woman raises the spear away from Eloa and looks her over with those calculating eyes that regard a possible danger. Her voice is velvet when she tells Eloa “You’re not the target. If you keep out, I’ll not need to shed more innocent blood, your blood.” Her eyes return to Lykaia who still looks to not have moved even an inch, not even to draw her own weapons. “Stay out of it.”
“Eloa, why not take walk. I think our cosplayer does not like you.” Matias says in a resonating baritone of a voice, his head ticking to the side evidently sending the young college woman away. His hand is still behind his back and from his other pocket a tin coin is drawn out saint minted and he offers to the fantastical woman. “My name is Matias, yes. How about we flip for it. Heads you try again another day. Tails well… Is early and exercise is good, even on staycation.” he shows the coin as if he really would flip for it.
“She kindof sounds like you Lykaia.” Eloa comments with a wave towards the other woman, frowning a bit, she moves back but tilts her head. “Oh Eloa learnt how to see eidolons. You have to like.. kindof squintttt .. But she is not possesed.” The latina reports as if that would somehow be the turning point today. That the woman wasn’t possessed by a eidolon. Nodding at Matias’s words, Eloa takes a few steps back, and then a few more.
“My voice is not velvet and I don’t care about innocent life.” Lykaia says, frozen in place, but able to speak, it is only her eyes that briefly glance to Eloa when she admits “I can’t move. Don’t think I got hit with a paralyzing poison. Got to be magic.”
The woman looks Matias over, assessing him and telling him “No, my mistress challenges her to join and demonstrate her ability in Dun Scaith. See if this failure’s worthy of her blood. Do not force me to kill you, innocent.” When she tells Matias, there is this slight tremble at the word innocent.
“Scottish or Wildling?” Matias wonders undeterred as the very palm sized SNS pistol slips free of the holster and hangs down at his left side his primary hand. His right hand rolls the coin across his knuckle and then clutches it in his palm the saint glowing green s the ground beneath the spear wielding woman cracks, breaks, and suddenly with a twist breaks into quicksand also potentially putting the unknown spearmaiden off balance. “Normally I would be happy to wait and see, but freezing your opponents before wanting to kidnap them is poor sport.” he says with a confident baritone of a voice then raises his gun hand leveling it at the woman’s chest in the middle of the park during the day.
Eloa seems.. torn between something. Her eyes keep darting to Matias, then Lykaia, then Matias and she tries to poke Lykaia to see if the woman can feel it. There’s some mumble about shadowwalking but realizing that would leave Matias here all alone, Eloa frowns more and then tries to use some of her magic on Lykaia. Her eyes narrow for a moment the cross being taken out from under her waistcoat anddd to one of side of the woman, a tree suddenly looks like Lykaia. The woman looks a littleee bit green at the edges… and Lykaia suddenly looks like a tree! At least the non moving would fit!
Eloa apparently has lost all her abilities in this room.
The reaction is fast, and it starts with a long sigh, then a jump to the side, she is incredibly well trained. To the most that one with her measure of power can be at. Her expression grows blank, pained. “Irish.” She tells Matias, lowering her spear to point the tip at him. She appears unafraid of the leveled gun. “Why do you keep forcing me to kill you? I grow weary of your deaths, innocent one. However much I loathe doing this, a god’s order is a god’s order. There is no way out.” The pain returns to her expression.
Eloa pokes Lykaia, but there is not much of a response other than one comment told to Eloa “I hate all my ancestors.”
Matias lets out a sigh and simply shrugs as the spearmaiden avoids the quicksand, “I think we can-” opens fire on the woman *BANG* *BANG* BANG* and if she tries to avoid begins tracking her emptying the remainder of the mag *BANG BANG BANG BANG* at the same time he begins to walk in a wide circle moving between the spearmaiden and Lykaia. “- Definitely talk about this.” he says much louder his hearing not doing great after popping off rounds without ear protection.
“Ummm Eloa want to help her not serve her goddess anymore.. Maybe you can help her with that Matias?” Eloa calls out and then her phone starts beeping like crazy. “Oh no there’s a code red at the hospital. Eloa will crash over at Lykaias after… Uh…. should I take her?” Eloa asks poking Lykaia again. “With shadowwalk?”
Matias says “Yes. I will be fine.“
Matias says “Yes Eloa, I just found out in last five seconds. Stabby woman first, then religious separation.“
Frowning a little, Eloa doesn’t want to leave Matias all on his own! She summons her capybara… slowly who crawls out through a rift. “Listen to Matias! ” She tells the capybara who she’s left instead of her and Lykaia as they shadowwalk back to the university.
“That might be a good idea.” Lykaia comments, her tone even. “I hate them all.” She sighs again.
The woman reacts immediately, sliding to the side, as little wings grow along her feet and she finds herself pushed forward towards Matias. Rather than strike at him outright with the sharp point of her spear, she swings it around and uses the blunt side to push into Matias to try and put him down to the ground.
Matias releases the magazine from the SNS dropping an empty magazine to the ground but the spearmaiden rushes him and with an *oof* is struck with the blunt side of the spear, tumbling into the ground… “Capy… Keep her busy.” he grouns and turns after he hits the ground a plume of smoke seems to come off him and… A midnight-hued maine coon darts off all but invisible in the quickly dissipating plume of smoke. It is moving off towards nearby tree and bushes instead of being out in the open now that Eloa and Lykaia are both gone.
Fate does not favor someone today, and he finds himself tumbling down to the ground, and then scoot away as the capybara tries to make its jump for the woman. He could notice there that she is significantly stronger than any human could hope to be. The summoned creature does not have the fortune of her hesitation, and she makes to strike it in full with the sharp side of her dark spear. She sighs again and unfortunately heard about the shadowwalking as someone’ summon comes to jump her. She begins to glow with the blinding light of the sun and both creatures begin to struggle to strike her. “I know your friend took her. You should run and escape me. You can’t defeat me.”
Fate does not favor someone today, and he finds himself tumbling down to the ground, and then scoot away as the capybara tries to make its jump for the woman. He could notice there that she is significantly stronger than any human could hope to be. The summoned creature does not have the fortune of her hesitation, and she makes to strike it in full with the sharp side of her dark spear. She sighs again and unfortunately heard about the shadowwalking as Matias(feline catus)’ summon comes to jump her. She begins to glow with the blinding light of the sun and both creatures begin to struggle to strike her. “I know your friend took her. You should run and escape me. You can’t defeat me.”
Fate does not favor Matias(feline catus) today, and he finds himself tumbling down to the ground, and then scoot away as the capybara tries to make its jump for the woman. He could notice there that she is significantly stronger than any human could hope to be. The summoned creature does not have the fortune of her hesitation, and she makes to strike it in full with the sharp side of her dark spear. She sighs again and unfortunately heard about the shadowwalking as Matias(feline catus)’ summon comes to jump her. She begins to glow with the blinding light of the sun and both creatures begin to struggle to strike her. “I know your friend took her. You should run and escape me. You can’t defeat me.”
Matias makes it to the bushes and trees near the pond, coming back into a human form while kneeling in cover. He can hear the spearmaiden of course and rubs his chest with a quiet sigh. A seed is pulling from his blazer, his thumb is bitten and a word “Malphas” is uttered… Within moments a squirming almagmation of vines, roots, and flowers at the center manifests. Animated by a demonic spirit the fae tells it, “Free game for now.” and it begins growing and crawling in the direction of the spearmaiden and the capybara. At the same time he makes an arcane gesture and closes his eyes and the immediate area is warded against the spearmaidens very weapon of choice magically blunting it. Who knows how good his cover is, he is not particularly stealthy and he calls out peeking in the direction of the fight. “Maybe but if I can run now. I can run later. Why do you want Lykaia? Did she make promises or is bloodline bound to something?” his brazilian accented english giving him away no matter how good his not so good cover might have been.
At the very least it is now two summons and an arcanist against the spearmaiden and not just a half-bearded academic on staycation. Progress.
“She holds a pinch of her divine blood and I’m ordered to collect her.” The woman strikes the capybara again with great skill, making it look very weak before turning to the amalgamation of vines, roots, and flowers. “Lykaia is marked by shadow, an unforged blade, to be trained and added to her servants like I was.” She says, the root and her in a little dance now. “She will be reborn like all of her then sisters have been.” She jumps back, putting some distance between herself and the summons. This does follow with another sigh and it’s in that jump that the lethargy that infests those who have fallen does show, it is just slightly slower.
“If you do not run, I will regretfully have to kill you and it won’t matter whether I would like it or would not.” The spear rises again. “I’ll torture you.”
Matias rises up from behind the bush and with a hand clenching a saint minted coin to his palm with his thumb makes an upward clawed gesture… The very grass turning into vines and wrapping around the spearmaidens legs even trying to get to the knees to force her to bend one if possible. Meanwhile the Capybara spirit and living vines continue to press the advantage. If the latino were going to do anything else he is briefly stuck with the vision of a power behind the woman and then grimaces. “Normally I would not intervene between a Goddess and her chosen or cursed… But Lykaia is ours. You want her, make a bargain like civilized murderess.” he suggests while recovering from his brief visionary stunlock his voice sounding less confident, but he does reload the pistol with one of his two remaining magazines and the slide re-engages.
The spear comes and readjust as the maiden finds her legs rooted, and targets the capybara right away. She holds the spear on the middle and the back and then pushes it forward and pierces into it, making the capybara disappear. “Lykaia will replace me and I’ll be released from my servitude to her.” She does say, adjusting the spear as Malphas draws near. “You really should run. Once this thing drops, how do you imagine to run after one who can keep jumping after you?”
A crackle of rushes through the air from a good distance away, and a bullet rushes past the spearmaiden, missing her. It does make her hesitate for a second, to prepare herself from whenever the next one may come and not knowing where it comes from.
Matias also hears the shot, seeing nothing, and takes a few quick breaths *hueh hueh hueh* “Lets go.” he says to himself as he comes back up out of cover with his pistol aimed opening fire with bursts of three until the eight shot magazine and one in the chamber is expended. With his off hand another arcane gesture is made and a blanket over the nearby area is warded against the spearmaidens current weapon of choice. “You know. I can give you someone else if you like. Do you want women, men… Does not have to be Lykaia.” he says in a loud baritone of a voice, his hearing once again not thanking him for unloading without protection.
Malphas gets a hit in and it smacks against her force shield that crackles under it and another shot rings out, drawing closer to its target. The spearmaiden had opened herself to turn the spear around and cut her legs free from the roots. “She trains all. But they must be marked by the Shadow, ready to be reforged.” She says cryptically, and then makes to jump towards Matias. “Unless you have a perfect candidate… I’ll be killing you now.”
Wherever the shot is coming from, the spearmaiden does not seem able to see it either, the rising sun in the east makes it hard. The streets below are not a problem, but there is no one there. No one stands at an opened window, which leads to the likely place being ontop of a roof, and that means looking straight into the sun.
Matias lifts a hand up and then makes a downward gesture as the winds begin to gust and then howl pushing down on the whole area causing trees to shudder and leaves to fly as anyone who has not fled from literally supernatural combat and is playing lookie lou’s probably starts to back away as things affect them. The spearmaiden gets off the ground only to be metaphorically smacked by down by the downward winds. Shouting above the noise of wind through trees and howling groans. “Malphas… Capy, ground her. Snare her!” apparently instructing the minions to focus on mobility rather than damage. The empty SNS magazine is dropped, the last one is loaded, slide engaged and one popped into the chamber. Taking several breathes he says to himself “Remember. Light of foot. Quick of mind.” and then he begins running extending a range gap between himself and the spearmaiden and making for the thicker treed portion of the park.
It is a single brief pickup of the wind that draws from above and forces the spearmaiden to land much sooner. Not at where Matias is, but enough to disable her from jumping at him. It does not keep her from starting to rush at him, as little wings begin to grow at her feet again. She’s fast, and the little wings at her feet try and compensate for the wind while the next shot that comes with the next crackle misses her by a wider margin as the range, distance and difficulty from the wind increases. The capybara had already vanished, defeated but the nature summon starts to abide the command, trying to chase after her, except, also finding itself slowed by the potent wind.
Matias tries to continue to lead the spearmaiden closer to the source of long range gunfire. While running towards the thicker grouping of trees there is a look over his shoulder. Making a slashing gesture in the spear maiden’s diretion. The groun begins to split and sink turning beautiful grass into pockets of quick sand. Another ward is laid over himself this time against spears. It is now time for lucky rifle shot or the Malphas summon to save the day, otherwise… well there is a plan in the trees!
The spearmaiden however does not chase after Matias and instead diverts off into another direction. The last look she carries, directed towards Matias, is disappointment? That does mean the suppressed gunfire comes to an end with her moving out of its range.
And in the distance on that roof, Lykaia does exhale, slowly, tracing after the figure, though she is already too far from any more shots. Still, she remains low.
Matias pulls out his cellphone ringing up Lykaia, “I would say got some ‘splaining to do but that fucker was Cuban and no one likes them.” he says in a mild bit of inter-Latin racicism. “But you do need to explain why an Irish Valkyrie is coming for you.”
“Scathach mixed into the bloodline. Some demon somewhere, too. And there’s angel blood mixed in. Don’t know why I’m getting attention from that side of the family now.” Lykaia tells to her phone, her tone bland and even. She does rise to her feet, and starts to make her way down from it. “You’d need to ask dead people if they got any shitty deals.”
“Well I escaped with a bruise and another disappointed woman in my life. So nothing new. I am going to find breakfast. Be safe.” Matias says into his phone and then hangs up tucking it into his blazer and mentally dismissing Malphas so it does not eat anyone, the vine monster turning to dust.